Gesink takes Tour of California while Sagan scoops fifth stage win

Robert Gesink completed his comeback from a bad leg fracture suffered last September when he rounded out as final overall winner in the Tour of California. The Rabobank rider had grabbed the race lead on Saturday’s tough stage to Mount Baldy, and was never really troubled on yesterday’s concluding leg in Los Angeles.

Liquigas Cannondale’s dominant Peter Sagan clocked up yet another stage win, his sprint victory ahead of Tom Boonen and Gerald Ciolek (both Omega Pharma-Quickstep) adding to those he took on the opening four days of the race.

The 22 year old has long been regarded as one of the most talented young riders in the sport but clocking up five wins out of eight stages shows that he has moved to a new level, and furthers the thought that he could go on to be one of the most dominant riders in the bunch.

“I’m very happy to win [at] the Amgen Tour of California. I’m feeling good,” he said. “Also, I’m happy for the sponsor Cannondale because it’s a very important race. After this I have a more important race, the Tour de France. I want to win some stages at the Tour de France, or after I have Olympic games and championships.”

Sagan said earlier in the week that he was aiming to win the green jersey in the Tour. He acknowledged yesterday that it would tough to beat Mark Cavendish in a straight sprint, but also acknowledged that he is a more versatile rider and can in theory score points in other terrain.

“For the Tour de France, I think Mark Cavendish has come up very strong. In the sprint, when we have a stage on the flat, it’s very hard to beat him,” he said. “But maybe some stages will be good for me with the climbs. We will see on the Tour.”

Gesink had thrice finished as best young rider in the race, achieving that feat in 2007, 2008 and 2009, with a best overall placing of eighth. Yesterday saw him graduate to the overall success, and underlines that he’s back from his bad training crash eight months ago. He fractured his femur then but has worked hard to return at a good level.

“Coming back from a leg injury is a big thing. For me, emotionally, is something really big to be back at this high level and to win a stage here, the toughest stage of all,” he said. “It’s a good thing to be back in California and to be winning again.”

Being flat and just 68.5 kilometres in length, it was guaranteed that the final stage from Beverly Hills to L.A. Live would see plenty of aggressive racing.

Michael Creed (Optum Powered by Kelley Benefits Strategies) was one of the first attackers, but it was a later seven man move which proved to be a bit more successful. The riders present were Garmin Barracuda’s Nathan Haas, fellow Australian Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare Maxxis), Dutchman Thomas Dumoulin (Argos-Shimano), the Belgian Jasper Stuyven (Bontrager Livestrong) plus the Americans Scott Zwizanski (Optum Kelly Benefit Strategies), Morgan Schmitt (Team Exergy) and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell Cycling).

They opened a 35 second lead over the Rabobank-led chase heading onto the finishing circuits, but the GreenEdge team then reduced this further. Individual attacks followed from those in the break, with Haas’ surge carrying him seventeen seconds clear in the final buildup to the sprint.

He was hauled back, though, and while the Omega Pharma Quick Step team tried to set up Boonen for a sprint victory, Sagan was too quick.

The success was his fifth of the race and saw him finish well clear in the points classification. Gesink ended the race 46 seconds ahead of David Zabriskie and a further eight clear of Zabriskie’s Garmin - Barracuda team-mate Tom Danielson, with Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) in fourth.

Sébastian Salas (Team Optum - Kelly Benefit Strategies) was best climber, Wilco Kelderman the top young rider and RadioShack Nissan first in the teams classification.